| mind said: SvennoJ 4096x2160 and 2048x1080 are just projector standarts, the actual movie res. is different and depends on Aspect Ratio, that's why home 4K standart is 3840x2160(1.78:1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Initiatives Just if you didn't know. In theater, even 2048x858 movies looks great today. |
Yes, I know I didn't want to make it more complicated, until now :)
Anomorphic lenses are not supported by the source format with digital cinema projection so you lose vertical resolution in widescreen as opposed to 35mm film. (They are still used to use all available light from the imaging array of the projector, the system vertically stretches the 2.39:1 2048x858 source to 2048x1080 to be squeezed back into 2.39:1 by the anamorphic lens) So the vertical resolution suffers as opposed to 35mm film.
The same happens on blu-ray, 2.35:1 movies are stored at 1920x817, storing black bars on the disc, while DVDs were enhanced for 16:9 tv's and stored as 720x480 (NTSC) and 720x576 (PAL) then horizontally stretched to 852 pixels wide. One of the reasons a good dvd upscaler can have good results.
I guess they didn't bother with anamorphic blu-rays since the digital 2K movie source doesn't support it, and using native res on digital screens looks best. (Phillips did make a 2560x1080 21:9 tv but it's discontinued, LG still makes them for PC's)
Current digital cinema might not have much of a resolution advantage over blu-ray but it does use 4:4:4 12 bits color, opposed to 4:2:2 8 bit color on blue-ray. Meaning digital cinema prints use 4096 shades for each color for every pixel, while blu-ray has 256 shades of luminance (Y) for every pixel, but only chrominance (UV) info for every other horizontal pixel and every other line, effectively resulting in a 960x540 color image. (To be precise it's 220 shades, 16 is black, 235 is white in YUV)
Digital cinema also supports upto 250 mbps data rate as opposed to 54mbps for blu-ray.
There are already a lot of theaters out there with 4K projectors. If your theater has a 4K projector the flat 1.85:1 1998x1080 and scope 2.39:1 2048x858 are automatically upscaled to 3996x2160 and 4096x1716, the latter which can be further scaled to 4096x2160 to use the full imaging array with an anamorphic lens. That already gives a smoother picture.
After earth, This is the end and next Elysium are actually mastered in 4K (shot in 5K), 4096x1716, finally exceeding the quality of a pristine 35mm print shot with anamorphic lenses. (And maybe one day 8K will make it to the cinema to exceed TODD-AO 70mm film resolution)
The blu-ray disc association still hasn't decided on the final format for 4K home video. The decision is expected later this year. Sony has already released a home theater projector with 4096x2160 resolution, while tv's are adopting quad HD 3840x2160. The latter will most likely make it, hopefully with at least 10 bit color and support for many different frame rates.
